Usa during WW2

[pennywise4321]

Im doing a detailed project of the USA during WW2.

Can someone tell me some important topics I should include and yes I know about wikepedia e.t.c but you guys are always so much more helpfull

[mklsgl]

Im doing a detailed project of the USA during WW2.

Can someone tell me some important topics I should include and yes I know about wikepedia e.t.c but you guys are always so much more helpfull

One that isn't discussed very much is how overwhelmingly anti-war the American public was before Pearl Harbor.

[pennywise4321]

Thank you its very helpfull

Keep them coming people

[Pezmo]

Don't use wikipedia, so many mistakes in it. You need to go down to the local library and look up some history books on America during the second world war. You could even add in a piece about a relative or a friends relative that served during the second world war.

[Indiogene]

I knew about the 1942 World Almanac printed a 20-page subsection on the "People of the United States" had plentiful demographic information and data about the US population at the time when the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred.

The subsection includes "Number of Young Adult Males", "the American Negro", "Japanese population under the US flag", "Mother Tongues of the American population", "German and Italian nationals-registration of national origins", "The Bulgarians, Romanians and Hungarians in the USA", "Religious denominations in Freedom" and "American Indians and other natives in US territorial lands."

The best 2 page part was "the Melting pot" shows America should get past pity differences and unite as one nation to fight back a rising but always diverse culture of people. This was to generate patriotism among all Americans and create solidarity against the threats of Nazism and tyranny.

[Indiogene]

Don't use wikipedia, so many mistakes in it. You need to go down to the local library and look up some history books on America during the second world war. You could even add in a piece about a relative or a friends relative that served during the second world war.

I have two relatives in WWII: My maternal grandfather was in the Marines fought in the Pacific theatre and although not in combat, he was stationed in a Naval ship during the battle of Iwo Jima. Interestingly, most people seem unaware the Marines are part of the US Navy (hint: the Marines logo has the anchor also displayed on the Navy logo) and the US air force wasn't formed until 1946! Back then, the US armed forces was racially segregated, yet my grandpa being of American Indian descent originally from Osage county, Ok. north of Tulsa passed as white to receive an official federal birth certificiate despite the BIA offered him a record said "Indian-Boy-noncitizen". I find it very ironic the USA practiced what it preached against: racism and maltreatment of its' minorities. Especially the internment of Japanese-Americans in military detention camps across the western USA.

Also my paternal grandfather was (this one really is tricky): in the Free French forces and the Resistance. For the first 2 years of the Nazi occupation of France, esp. his original region the Nord/PdC facing Belgium was also geographically close to England, where the French government was in exile under Charles De Gaulle. Then in 1942, he manage to get across the English channel to return in support of the Resistance, and his story was remarkably true. The problem was I confused the two separate forces as both in another message board with a British army veteran/war historian living in the USA, and his wife happened to be a moderator. I explain about that erroneous post, but to argue between him and a grandson of veterans...it comes to show historians can disagree. But historic records or theories can at times be true and false, and we admit to make mistakes.

Edited June 9, 2011 by Makoto Jupiter

[Doctor_Strangelove]

One that isn't discussed very much is how overwhelmingly anti-war the American public was before Pearl Harbor.

Also what isn't discussed very much is how many Nazi supporters the American public contained before Pearl Harbour.

[ShadowSot]

Also what isn't discussed very much is how many Nazi supporters the American public contained before Pearl Harbour.

Bit of shame would be the treatment of the Japanese Americans following the attacks on Pearl Harbor.

Our camps may have been better than the Germans, but we still locked up innocent Americans.

Also, what doesn't get much press would be the Japanese attack of the Aleutians and the Japanese Fire Balloons that they launched at the close of the war. I actually stumbled across a 1945 edition of the New York Herald (I think) that talked about the bombings at an antique store. Wish I'd have bought it now.

Afore mentioned, Wiki isn't an excellent source, but it's a good launching point and usually the source links are pretty good.

American Theatre

[stevewinn]

One that isn't discussed very much is how overwhelmingly anti-war the American public was before Pearl Harbor.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=024_1264818312

[Gatofeo]

I have two relatives in WWII ... my paternal grandfather was (this one really is tricky): in the Free French forces and the Resistance. For the first 2 years of the Nazi occupation of France, esp. his original region the Nord/PdC facing Belgium was also geographically close to England, where the French government was in exile under Charles De Gaulle. Then in 1942, he manage to get across the English channel to return in support of the Resistance, and his story was remarkably true. The problem was I confused the two separate forces as both in another message board with a British army veteran/war historian living in the USA, and his wife happened to be a moderator. I explain about that erroneous post, but to argue between him and a grandson of veterans...it comes to show historians can disagree. But historic records or theories can at times be true and false, and we admit to make mistakes.

Interesting, Makoto Jupiter.

My mother was a member of the Belgian Resistance, in Brussels. She was twice imprisoned by the Gestapo in St. Gilles Prison, in downtown Brussels.

Her first husband, the leader of a Belgian Resistance unit called the Luke Marc, narrowly escaped capture by the Germans. He escaped to Britain for training, then parachuted back into Belgium to lead his countrymen. We know he did this at least twice, perhaps three times.

Eventually, he was betrayed by a fellow Belgian Resistance member under torture. Captured, he was thrown into Breendonk torture camp, south of Brussels. He endured that terrible place for about a year. Two weeks before D-Day, he was executed.

My mother survived the war. She met my father, an American G.I., after he earned leave by fighting in the Battle of the Bulge.

Both my parents are dead. Mom died in 1983 of cancer. Dad died in 1998 of a heart attack. I still have half my relatives in Belgium, and have visited that wonderful country twice.

As for American history ...

Look into the use of Home Guards during the war, especially along the West Coast and hundreds of miles inland.

I knew an old man in northern Idaho who, along with a buddy, were sent to guard the entry of a long railroad tunnel near Wallace, Idaho. They were posted there for two weeks, in a tent, in the dead of winter: 25 degrees below 0 Fahrenheit (-32 C) and six feet of snow! They each had their .30-30 hunting rifles and 30 cartridges total.

Their mission: Shoot anyone who tried to sabotage the tunnel, because trains carried silver from the mines. And silver was a critical component of radios for airplanes, tanks, walkie-talkies and so on.

Thousands of home guards walked and surveilled long stretches of beaches, often with nothing more than their hunting rifle and a few cartridges -- to oppose the Japanese invasion of the West Coast.

That took guts. You knew that if enemy soldiers did appear, you wouldn't survive beyond a few shots.

The Home Guard did a lot of thankless jobs, often in harsh conditions, for which they received little or no thanks. It doesn't matter that nothing happened, they were there in the rain, snow, wind and night.

Look into the rationing of items for civilians, such as gasoline, tires, sugar, flour, meat, milk and so on.

In 1985, as a Wyoming reporter, I interviewed members of the class of 1945 in a small town. They said that many people got old wagons out of their barns and fixed them up, to take into town for shopping. Gasoline was hard to come by, but many people still had a horse or two, if just for riding.

I was told it was not uncommon, during the war, to see old wagons parked up and down the street. And many people rode their horses. A horse only requires water and pasture, common commodities in small towns of that era.

Fishing and hunting were wonderful, because all the men were off to war. The graduates said they never caught so many, or so big trout. One guy said he could go out in the fields and shoot a few pheasants for dinner with nothing but a single-shot .410 shotgun.

When the war ended, and the men returned, game populations went down because hunting and fishing pressure resumed.

There are so many untold stories about America in World War II. Call your local VFW or American Legion post to find a World War II veteran you can interview. Ask him to recommend a woman who might recall. Perhaps his wife?

Many women during the war had to feed families on limited foods. Many women worked in manufacturing plants, building tanks, Jeeps, planes, munitions, etc.

Good luck on your project. Hope I gave you some ideas.

[danielost]

why not go the route to remind people of the few german people who were put into internment camps here in texas during ww2, like the japanese people on the west coast and in hawaii were. there werent a lot of them but there were a few. you'll have to do your research for it tho.